Author's note: I expect someone will give me a tough break about the original series, but I'm warning you now that I've never seen it. However, I do adore the 2009 movie, and I do not hold myself responsible for any incongruities with the series. I'm just using my imagination.
It takes me longer than usual to get up this morning, so Astro pitches in. "Cora? You coming?" He pounds on my bedroom door.
"What, you gonna shoot my door down?" I yell, pulling a purple and yellow hoodie over my shirt.
"I already almost broke it by knocking," he says. I can hear the smile in his voice.
"Don't you ever do school at your own house? Or have you finished already?" I snap as I wrench open the door. It almost comes off in my hands, thanks to Astro.
"Well… yes," Astro answers sheepishly. I roll my eyes.
You'd think he's irritating me, and he is, but I'll recover rapidly. In the year since the great and bountiful Metro City fell to the surface, "Astro Boy" has fought eight alien monsters, including (but not limited to) a giant floating squid—and this right after he had actually died.
Fortunately for him, and all of us by extension, Astro is a robot. A life force from a falling star, the blue core, gives him life—and heart. When he lent some blue core to another robot named Zog, he didn't know Zog would bring him back to us.
Quite frankly, Astro is a hero, and I couldn't have been happier when Zog brought him back to life (at least until I found my parents). I had met him less than a week before, and I sure wasn't ready to lose him.
So now, as I open the door and see him smiling—a small smile, but it floods his face all the way to his light brown eyes—all my irritation evaporates, and I can tell he hasn't taken me seriously enough to be offended. "Ready to do school, Cora?"
Astro and I are both homeschooled—I guess it's because our parents both lost us and got us back, although Astro's story is much more dramatic and sad than mine.
Because Astro is academically smarter than I am, he comes over to help me once a week. It's embarrassing, I'll admit, but less so since Astro began to look less childlike.
I used to be a head taller than he is, but now we're eye to eye. The first time I noticed his growth, I thought his "dad," Dr. Tenma, had built him a skeleton with longer legs, but apparently the blue core is actually making him grow like a human. This is a bit unnerving; I wouldn't like to be his enemy right about now.
Possibly due to these developments in our friendship, I have a hard time concentrating on my schoolwork. Astro explains the proper solutions to the mistakes I make—which, after all, isn't too unusual.
Finally I click off the math screen. Astro gives me a curious look, his eyebrows slightly raised. "Why are you having trouble focusing?" he asks.
I find I don't know how to answer, so I decide to ask the question I've been thinking ever since the last time I saw him spiral around Mount Sophia. "If you wanted to, could you carry me while you fly?"
He glances down, seeming confused and surprised, which I guess he should be. While he's at it, I should probably blush or something. But I don't.
Still looking at his boots, he smiles. "Uh, yeah."
"Will you?" I persist coolly.
"If you want me to," he says, his eyes flickering upward.
"Cool," I say, my ears humming with excitement, which (for very good reason) doesn't happen often.
We smile at each other longer than we mean to. Astro coughs. "Want to go now?"
In no time at all we're standing on the porch on the back of my family's apartment. "So how do we do this?" I ask, a hand on my hip. "Do I go piggyback?"
"Nah, too much of a choking hazard." Astro smiles, but I'm not sure he's joking. Astro smiles a lot, even when I don't think it's necessary. "Actually, I had something in mind. Hold out your arms."
I realize that he's about to do with me what he does with little kids, especially after they've gone through a lot of trauma. They spread their arms like airplane wings so that "Astro Boy" can hook his own arms underneath, and voila.
Astro tells parents this is perfectly safe (by then he's saved their skins, so most of them believe him), but I'm not a ten-year-old, and I definitely won't feel safe.
"Well, you asked for this," I mutter, take a deep breath, and hold out my arms. I pretend to squeeze my eyes shut, but I turn my head slightly and peek through slits at Astro.
"You can open them all the way now," he half laughs.
I am a little embarrassed until I look down and realize we're off my porch, courtesy of the gentle flares on Astro's feet. I've seen it millions of times, but I've never been a part of it.
The breeze gets stronger as we pull slowly upward. My hair is getting in my face. "Do you think we could—"
Astro's rockets blast at full power, and we streak away before I had finished my request for speed.
I nearly bite my tongue in surprise. For just a moment I forget Astro is there and relax against him, completely wrapped in sky and wind.
This must be how a comet feels!
This is freedom. I've flown before, but never... never… "You're amazing," I call above the rush of the wind.
"If I had a dollar for every time I heard that…" he says with a little laugh.
I try to come up with something clever, but I'm having enough trouble remembering to breathe. "Well, don't get a big head. I'm still older than you are!"
He swoops up past the tip of Mount Sophia and hovers for a moment. We both stare down, and I just let my mind reel as I try to soak in the surface below.
"Now don't freak," Astro says—
—and drops me.
I shriek, but my hoodie flaps around my mouth and muffles me. When I push it away, I'm still freefalling. Dizzyingly, I spin past cold clouds and emerge damp. I stop screaming and start grinning.
White light streaks underneath me. Astro catches me, but backwards, so now I'm facing him.
I find I'm laughing uncontrollably, although I want to be angry at him for letting go when I was terrified.
Astro is impressed. "You were made for this, Cora, seriously."
Gee, thanks, but I'm not considering any long-term lessons, I think. Somehow I end up saying nearly the opposite: "I'm always game for excitement."
My arm winds around his shoulders, more for support against the breathtaking flight we've had than anything else. We drift lazily for a few moments. I can feel the heat of his chest on mine. "The blue core?" I ask, gesturing.
He nods.
"Astro?"
"Yeah, Cora?" he asks.
"I just want to say… thanks. My life would be unrecognizable right now if not for you." I'm surprised at how easy it is to say.
"Any time," he responds.
He means it, I think, suddenly more dizzy than I was after looking down on the whole world.
In the year since the great and bountiful Metro City fell to the surface, "Astro Boy" has fought eight alien monsters, including (but not limited to) a giant floating squid right after he had actually died. I am so thankful that Zog brought him back, because just plain Astro has done him one better. That boy, not the superhero, but the kind-hearted robot who is so human inside, has won my heart. I know he will never break it on purpose.
"Yeah… thanks," I whisper again.
Astro looks away and smiles, just smiles.
After a long pause, he murmurs, "I know."